A small experiment about Potassium carbonate

Potassium carbonate (K2CO3) is a white salt, soluble in water, which forms a strongly alkaline solution. It can be made as the product of potassium hydroxide's absorbent reaction with carbon dioxide. It is deliquescent, often appearing a damp or wet solid. Potassium carbonate is used in the production of soap and glass. The CAS NO is 584-08-7.

Potassium Carbonate is a water insoluble Potassium source that can easily be converted to other Potassium compounds, such as the oxide by heating (calcination). Carbonate compounds also give off carbon dioxide when treated with dilute acids. Potassium Carbonate is generally immediately available in most volumes. High purity, submicron and manpower forms may be considered.

In this article, I will teach you a simple method to get Potassium carbonate from wood ash.

The main components of wood ash are potassium carbonate and calcium oxide, phosphorus pentoxide. Potassium carbonate is soluble, after dissolution, filtration, evaporation, cooling and crystallization and other steps, we can put the ash Potassium carbonate extracted from wood ash.

The specific steps extracted Potassiumcarbonate in plant ash as follows:

(1)   Put a certain amount of wood ash in the beaker, add water to the higher ash surface 1cm~2cm. Light heat, and stir with the glass rod, the plant ash in potassium salts dissolved in water.

(2)   Ready for a filter, the beaker of ash extract together with filter. Finally get the clear filtrate.

(3)   Put the filtrate into the evaporating dish, the evaporating dish for heating, stirring constantly with a glass rod solution, prevent the droplet splash. When the evaporation to only a small amount of liquid, stop heating.

(4)   Static cooling evaporation of salt crystals, slowly precipitation.

(5)   The salt crystal dissolution, adding hydrochloric acid to see whether there is a clear limewater mixing the gas generation; it shows the carbonate ions exist.

This is one of the simplest methods of extraction of potassium carbonate from wood ash, we can only see it as a small experiment, not get potassium carbonate of high purity through the activity.

Want to learn more information about Potassium carbonate, you can access the guidechem.com. Guidechem.com is just a place for you to look for some chemicals. Guidechem provide the most convenient conditions for the international buyers and let these leads benefit all the business people. Guidechem chemical B2B network provides information on china and global chemical market quotation and relative chemical Information. Guidechem Chemical Network providing the most complete information of the chemical industry.